Text, voice messages reveal murdered Campbell-Collymore wanted to fix marriage

Slain businesswoman Simone Campbell-Collymore had pleaded with her husband, Omar Collymore, to give their marriage a second chance and to resume living with her and their children, two months before she was murdered in a contract-style killing reportedly orchestrated by him.

WhatsApp messages, including voice notes, exchanged between the couple in October 2017 and revealed yesterday during the trial in the Home Circuit Court, the apparently frustrated and dispirited 32-year-old mother and wife was heard telling Collymore that she wanted her husband and wanted her family together and that she was willing to move past his infidelity, even though it hurt her.

“ Omar I want you, I want my family, the kids are hurting, I am hurting, you are hurting, I don’t know what else to tell you, “ she said in one of the messages. “ I want my man but you have to want me as much.

“Separation is not going to work for me, I am not your girlfriend, I am not your baby mother. The bottom line is you're not even sure you want me,” Campbell Collymore said in another message.

Campbell Collymore was killed along with taxi driver Winston 'Corey' Walters on January 2, 2018.

They were killed when men rode up on motorbikes and sprayed them with bullets as they waited to be let inside Campbell-Collymore's Forest Ridge apartment complex in Red Hills, St Andrew.

Collymore, a Barbados-born businessman, and his co-defendants - Michael Adams, the alleged contract killer; as well as Dwayne Pink and Shaquille Edwards - are being tried for the double murder.

The couple, the court previously heard, got married in 2010 and moved to Jamaica from Florida and resided with Campbell-Collymore's parents.

Collymore, however, moved out of the premises following a massive fight with his wife at which time he had reportedly threatened that he would ensure that the family would crumble.

The fight which, the court heard, involved Collymore destroying his wife's phone and his wife throwing out his things, was sparked by Collymore’s alleged affair.

At the time, when Collymore moved out, the court had previously heard that he went to live with a family member.

But during the messages, he was heard telling his wife that he had to be living out of his truck and that he was not happy with the way things were.

“I was getting treated like [expletive],” he told her in one of the messages as he kept reiterating that their issue did not originate with a “woman”.

Collymore, in his message, emphasised that he was feeling “down and unhappy about everything” and that he had issues that he needed to work on before they resumed living together.

In one of the messages he was heard telling her that they both needed to undergo intensive therapy.

Simone however told him that he was using what he claimed he went through at her parents’ house as an excuse, even though what he did to her was worse.

Both accused each other of not understanding the damage that was done to each of them.

“You ever think why I would come home drunk to fall asleep,” Collymore asked in one of the messages

His wife however told him that while she did not see the problem she was willing to look past everything to work on their marriage.

Collymore, in reply, asked, “You think that was a woman?"

His wife however told him that even though she was willing to look past their problem he was not.

“I am saying this for the last time, I want my husband," she continued.

“Whether you like to hear it or not you didn’t just cheat, you were disrespectful. But I told you I want my marriage, I want my children to have their parents under one roof,” Campbell-Collymore added in another message.

But, she later told him that she had realised her worth and knew that she was a good mother and wife and was willing to agree to a separation if that was what he wanted. Campbell-Collymore also expressed repeatedly that her husband had not done anything to show that he really wanted their marriage.

She also emphasised that everything that he wanted was only for himself.

In one of the voice notes, she was heard saying “I am done crawling on my knees” and that she just wanted peace and happiness.

She was also heard telling him that she was willing to transfer the title of a Jeep in his name as well as the M6, as she wanted to prove to him that she was not controlling and wanted him to know that she was ready to walk away and leave him with everything.

Campbell-Collymore expressed confidence that she would “prevail” on her own and urged him to “stop the back and forting” and to do “whatever makes him happy”.

She also told him that they were both excellent parents and could share the children.

Among the issues highlighted in the messages were that one of their businesses was experiencing financial challenges and that Collymore was in need of money and wanted his wife’s help.

The court heard earlier in the trial that the couple and Campbell-Collymore's parents and sister all went for counselling before she moved in with her husband.

The trial will continue today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com